Thursday, July 20, 2017

I wanted to introduce everyone to my
favorite hyena, Sweet. Sweet is a young male just barely out of the black cub
stage, but he already has the gumption of a full-grown female. Sweet the Hyena
Cub lost the first fight of his life, for intra-litter dominance, to his brother
Tangy.That defeat was the day Sweet the
Destroyer was born. Sweet remembers, my friends. His mission ever since: to
never lose again. Being the less dominant of the two, Sweet is much smaller
than his brother and his spots haven’t fully come in yet. Despite this, he is pound
for pound the most ferocious hyena I have met out here.

Above is Sweet gaining the upper hand in
play with his larger brother Tangy.

Never ask
Sweet why he doesn’t nurse in preferred position or why he doesn’t nurse that
often in general. If you manage to commit this faux pas, he’ll tell you he’s
simply giving the other cubs a fighting chance on the field of battle, or that
he has little interest in mortal needs like milk. But the real answer is that
he’s still fuming over his prior defeat. Having been denied the better nipple for the duration of his short life, Sweet opts to take his
vehemence out on every hyena that comes within hunting distance. Sweet is the
first hyena to chase away the pesky adult males that hang around the den. They
are eight times his size, yet lack the ability to fight off this scrappy cub.
Inevitably the males will choose not to face Sweet’s one man army, and will
slink off into the distance.

Sweet’s wrath is not limited to
males, he also chases away lower ranking females. One day Rangsang, Palazzo,
Sea Biscuit, and Cheese Whiz were all groaning over the den and greeting. Like
an old man frustrated with the teenagers hanging out on his lawn, Sweet came barreling
out of the den growling – causing all these adult females to back off the den
excitedly, reminding them who is the real boss at the South communal den.

Here is a video of Sweet beating up on
Belgian Tervuran, a subadult male. Despite the size difference, TERV acts
submissively towards Sweet (probably a good idea).

An avid play wrestler, Sweet is
always starting fights with his playmates. Sweet is much smaller than all the
cubs in the South clan, besides Sonic screwdriver (a black cub three
months his junior). He doesn’t let size get in the way however, and will play
mount any opponent he deems unworthy. As he is the seventh highest ranking
hyena, this means he gets to beat up on a lot of other hyenas (61 to be exact).
South den sessions have become my favorite, as I know that I will get to see
Sweet the destroyer win another of his daily battles.

Fellow cubs are not safe from Sweet’s fury,
they must be on high alert from an attack that can come at any moment!

I will
never get sick of the sight of this tiny guy going bristle tailed with
excitement and running pell-mell after grown hyenas, and I can’t wait to see
the audacious adult he becomes. Who knows, he may become the first dominant
male hyena (until he immigrates).

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